i am not real familiar with those 2 accessories but I do have several others on my Christmas layout for kids to use. From what I observe the more that THEY can control the action the more engrossed they are in that accessory. Pressing a button to initiate action and then just watching works the first time and that's it for that accessory.
As just one example of stuff on my layout: I have the Lionel crane. It does NOTHING unless the child makes it do something. It never goes unused.
my $.02 worth
walt